The annual Perseid meteor shower, known for its bright and fast meteors, arrives in Earth's sky from a radiant located in the heroic constellation of Perseus. This celestial spectacle of the northern summer is created when grains of dust shed along the orbit of the periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle vaporise in Earth's dense atmosphere, leaving brief but beautiful trails in the night.
A composite image taken near the peak activity of the shower on 12 August captured two bright Perseid meteors and the watery reflection of a meteor from a location near the coastal village of Grisslehamn, Sweden. The meteors, nearly as bright as Altair, the brightest star in the scene, appear alongside the faint and diffuse background of the Milky Way.
The peak activity of this year's shower coincided with a New Moon, so the flashes of the Perseid meteors were not diminished by bright moonlight. For many sky observers, this night of bright Perseid meteors followed their observation of the silhouette of the New Moon in a long-awaited solar eclipse.
